


Hon's Stories

by orphan_account



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Bitty reader, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-14 20:43:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 5,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11791101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: This is a story about Hon, a reader in the bitty reader universe.





	1. Chapter 1

Hon was tossed carelessly into the cage, her body thudding on the cold, hard floor from the impact. Instantly her four fellow readers Ad, Ki, Tim, and Comp crowded around her as she curled into a ball. Ad cradled her head in his lap and glared along with the rest of her cage mates at the retreating back of Gaster as he hummed a quiet but catchy tune. Ad’s fingers brushed Hon's neck and she gasped at the sudden flare of pain. Quickly her friends gathered around with looks of concern and anger warring on their faces. Ki asked, “W-what happened? Is Hon ok?!”

Ad looked up from her crumpled form with a sickened look on his face and replied, “Oh god… He took her voice… Oh god…”

All of the other readers’ faces went white with shock and looked down at her ink-covered neck, while simultaneously the eavesdropping readers in the surrounding cages gasped, where there was an angry red scar. Ki quickly went to the chicken wire of the cage door to vomit. Comp stroked her back and murmured, “Does it hurt?”

Hon slowly nodded, sitting up. Tim asked tentatively, “C-can you speak..?”

In a raspy croak that hurt Hon's still-healing throat like acid she replied in a whisper, “Just…barely…”

Ad sighed in relief and we all scooted to the back of the cage. We sat with Ad and Comp on the outside, and Tim, me, and Ki on the inside. They all stared out of the cage at the workers going by, the look on their faces promising bit fingers if the workers tried to grab me. Soon enough, ‘night-time’ fell and we waited another hour or two before Hon muttered, “We can’t let this stop us, we’re still doing it tonight. Do you still have it?”

Ad nodded and reached behind me and into the hole in the wall covered by our backs, drawing out the scalpel Hon had stolen from the labs when I was tattooed. Ad handed it to her gingerly and said, “Here ya go, Hon.”

Hon held it in the dark, our captors’ way of simulating night-time. She muttered, “It’s go time.”

Readers had little magic, but Hon channeled what she had into the scalpel as a crescent-moon blade of energy took shape on the surprisingly light scalpel’s top, crackling with energy and colored a light, vibrant purple. Hon climbed through the hole, the blade lighting her way, and made it to where she had stopped cutting last ‘night’. Hon sliced a clean circle in the concrete, the effort taking at least an hour, and it finally fell away with a clatter, revealing the outside world. As Hon gazed out, she felt a shiver of joy travel down her spine. For a second Hon hesitated, tempted, before she raced back down the tunnels and made it back to her cage. Hon's friends stood and asked, “Is it done? Finally done?”

Hon nodded and croaked, “Get everyone out, I’ve got a _bone_ to pick with Gaster.” They all nodded grimly, not acknowledging the pun, and climbed into the hole, each taking a different tunnel. Hon sliced through the chicken wire with ease and jumped out. She stumbled back in surprise as with a pop a Sans with a fedora appeared in the room, a Papyrus right behind him, the latter carrying a few crates. They both stared at Hon in shock, the smaller skeleton’s jaw working up and down noiselessly. Then he looked towards the cages, the white pips of his eyes darting quickly across the empty slots. His hand reached slowly for a semiautomatic pistol in it’s holster at his hip, and Ad’s voice suddenly echoed from my cage. “We got everyone ou…”

Hon guessed he had seen the skeletons, she didn’t look back to check. In a raspy voice Hon told Ad, “I got this, go.”

Hon hefted the scalpel as the taller skeleton set down the crates and the smaller skeleton slid towards her. Ad scowled, and replied, “If you were anyone else I wouldn’t do it.”

He slid back into the tunnels and Hon skipped backwards from the advancing skeletons, calling out in a croak that hurt her throat, “I’ve got no beef with you, it’s Gaster I want.”

Suddenly Hon was thrown on her butt as an explosion rocked the building and dust rained from the ceiling. The skeleton with the fedora muttered, “Right on time, I told them not to bring her.”

Hon was up and running even as the skeleton closed in, and she sliced the air behind her as a warning as she raised her voice in a raspy hiss, “Don’t follow me, I have a few things to say to Gaster.”

Hon quickly ran down the hallway and slipped through a crack in the door as one of the skeletons cursed loudly behind her. Suddenly Hon skidded to a stop as flames roared up, lighting the way to the lab. She quickly avoided the searing heat and soon stood before the doors. As Hon stared at them they set her tattoos and her scar itching, and she went through them into the clean and sterile lab. At least, normally it would be clean and sterile, now it was messy and noisy, making for a very messy battlefield. The shorter skeleton from before was already inside, his pistol out and his fedora gone as he shot blue volatile bullets at the silent Gaster.

 _How did he get in here before me?!_  Hon thought as she raced across the tiles towards Gaster. His purple-and-yellow sparking eyes focused on her, and he sent a bone in her direction while a dozen others struck at the Sans. Hon leaped purely on instinct and blood-lust as she sailed over the bone and hit the ground running. Hon hopped up several chairs and onto a table, launching off it with a cry of anger just as Gaster pinned the Sans. Gaster raised a hand to catch Hon in mid-air, but she was too quick and sliced across his left eye socket, carving a new crack into the skull, not enough to hurt the magical organs within but enough to cause pain. Gaster screeched at the sensation and clawed for her as she touched down and darted away, only for him to be pinned by blue gravity magic. The Sans reached out, but before he could pin her Hon darted out the doors, past the roaring flames, and back to her cage. Hon hopped through the chicken wire and climbed into the tunnels, hearing the mutters and whispers of the other readers echoing down them. As Hon exited the starry night sky greeted her, and she entered the throng. Hon found the other readers whom she had shared her cage with and Comp raised his voice. “Everyone! We need to go, so follow us until we find somewhere to stay!” 

Quickly the readers settled down and followed Hon and her friends into a twisting maze of alleys. Hon sent a dog whimpering away on our second turn, until they arrived behind Grillby’s. They gratefully stacked all of the styrofoam food containers into a shelter and huddled under as a group of clouds started letting out flurries of snow. Everything smelled like grease and salt, but it was better than the labs or staying out in the freezing snow. All that was left now, was to wait.


	2. Advi and Ti

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A peek at some readers Hon has helped. This is abt 1-2 months after their escape.

Advi rubbed calming circles into Ti’s back as the monsters chattered and walked around outside the container and the rest of the readers jumped up at them for attention. Advi asked softly, “Are you ready to come out now?”

“No!”

Came her reply as she crouched in the glass container’s corner. Advi sighed and rubbed the Timid’s back some more. Ti was shivering and wondered how her friend Advi could stand to have any of the monsters near her, they were so big and terrifying. She shuddered and said so aloud. Advi stayed silent for a minute, still rubbing Ti’s back. Then, they both heard a deep voice from above. “Heh. An Adventurous helping a Timid, guess you learn something new every day.”

Both of the readers looked up to see a skeleton with an orange hoodie peering over the wall at them both. Instantly Ti started hyperventilating and Advi comforted her while simultaneously glaring up at the skeleton. She scooped up her friend and carried her away just as a smaller skeleton with blue armor and bandanna hopped over the wall and was swarmed by readers. Ti winced visibly as he talked in a loud voice, “Hello! Nice to meet you all! How are you doing?!”

The readers all took places on various parts of his body as Advi carried the trembling Ti to another corner. The orange hoodie-ed skeleton was watching them as they went off and as the other skeleton asked, “Papyrus, can we keep all of them?!”

The now named Papyrus shook his head and said, “No, Sans, there’s a limit, and we only have room for two.”

Sans visibly deflated before he pulled himself up again and asked, “D’you think I’ve said hello to them all? I don’t want any to feel left out!”

Papyrus seemed to consider this for a moment before gesturing to Advi and Ti and saying, “Probably not them yet.”

Stars came into Sans’ eyes and he bounded over, a reader on each shoulder and many more following in his wake. He crouched down and said loudly in a booming voice, “Hello!!”

Ti and Advi both winced and Papyrus added, “You need to be more gentle with these two, one’s a Timid.”

Sans clapped his hands over his mouth in dismay and said in a much quieter tone, “Sorry.”

Advi smiled and replied, “It’s OK, Ti just doesn’t like to be around monsters much…”

Ti, after some encouragement by Advi, raised her head and managed a small, “Hi..”

Before she started trembling again and put her head back down to a few snickers by the other readers. Advi frowned at the readers that laughed and comforted Ti, whom now had a small blush of embarrassment darkening her cheeks. One reader, a Companion, shouted, “She and Ti are inseparable, so good luck getting one as a pet!”

Papyrus shrugged and Sans was once again swarmed by several other readers. After thirty minutes they ended up adopting a Timid, whom seemed very happy. Advi rubbed Ti’s shoulders consolingly and said, “There’s always next time…”

That night they both sat on the wall, too large for them to get off of without use of the ladders inside the tank. Suddenly the door opened and a group of monsters came in, carrying two crates. Ti opened her mouth to scream, but Advi clamped her hands over it and whispered, “Don’t worry, if they try to hurt ya I’ll take care of ‘em.”

Ti relaxed, though she didn’t stop looking at the monsters warily. One with a fedora and a reader in his suit pocket came over. When Ti saw the reader she gasped. Advi followed her gaze and squeaked in surprise. The reader had purple ink on her face and a pale pink scar on her throat. The monster adjusted his fedora and said, “What, cat got your tongue?”

Advi shook her head and said, “Once, when we first formed, we were helped by a group of feral readers, they helped us get here. They’re always somewhere around the Alpha Clan’s Grillby’s. Their leader, an Honest, had a scar like that one.” At this she gestured to the similar scar on the reader in his pocket’s neck. “She almost never spoke…”

Advi trailed off as Ti looked up for the first time. “But when she did, her words were kind, considerate, clever..” Ti trailed off.

“She was good to us until we got here.”

Advi finished.

The monster looked surprised. “How long ago was that, exactly?”

Ti answered. “A-about two weeks ago..”

The monster headed back to the larger group and they started talking while the two readers caught only snippets. “Two weeks..” “Grillby’s..” “Might be a good lead…”

Not long after the skeleton exited the store, mumbling about investigations and ‘getting his best guy on the job’.


	3. Thanksgiving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A confrontation and the time of thanks...

_Three months after the escape…_

It has been three months since they escaped from the labs, it has been a month since they reached the outside world, it has been a month since they started their lives anew. It was Thanksgiving, (hopefully) the best time to scavenge for food. Hon shouldered her packs and prepared to head out, the scalpel that she had stolen from the labs clutched in her left hand. Hon headed into the bright sunshine, exiting from the alley by the Grillby’s her group had chosen as the place they would live. Hon stayed in the shadows and slipped through a crack in the walls of the restaurant, and found a pair of drumsticks immediately. They almost beaned Hon in the face after falling from a tray and she fixed them to her belt. Soon, more stuff started falling off the trays and Hon caught most of them, until half of her packs filled already. Hon still carried the scalpel even as she heaved a twice-baked potato into her largest pack and a plastic container of cranberry sauce into another. Once or twice Hon caught a waiter watching her and she quickly moved to another section. Finally, after a few hours, all of Hon's packs were filled to the brim with food that would last her and her fellow readers a few weeks at least. With heavy packs and a light heart Hon moved back to the original crack and prepared to squeeze her way through. Suddenly Hon heard footsteps behind her, too loud to be a mouse, and she scampered under a table. A voice suddenly rose from the clamor and asked, “Hey G, whatcha looking at?”

Two pairs of boots came into view to my left and another voice responded, “Nothing, M, just thought I saw something…”

To Hon's increasing horror they sat down at the table she was hiding under. Hon went on her belly and crawled along, with the incentive of swinging sharp-edged boots above her. Finally Hon reached the end of the table and jogged away, not noticing the monsters to whom the boots belonged to had turned their attention away from their food. Hon ducked out of the door as another monster entered, her small feet crunching on the snow as she headed towards the alley. As Hon rushed into the entryway, she called out in a raspy shout, “Readers that are free are better off than you can see.”

Soon enough, seemingly a flood of readers had materialized from the piled styrofoam in the corner of the alley, when in reality there were only thirty. Hon passed out the food and said in a hoarse croak, “We’ll be eating well tonight!”

This was met with a cheer, and Hon was bundled into the piled styrofoam room that made up the reader’s living and eating quarters. The readers settled down and Ad sat next to Hon with a bit of one of the drumsticks she had brought back in one hand and a cheesy mass of potato in the other. He said to her, “This is your best haul yet!” Before promptly digging in. Hon joined him and ate with relish, dipping the bits of turkey into the cranberry sauce. Everyone was happy, and that was precisely why she didn’t expect the booming footsteps from the outside alley.

 _No, no not now-!_ Were the thoughts that cascaded into Hon's mind as the steps got closer and the readers panicked, swarming out of their shelter to see what was going on. Hon pushed through with her scalpel held to her side and the sight that greeted her chilled her _to the bone_. Heh. Two monsters with the shoes I had seen in the Grillby’s were walking into the alley as the disturbed readers swirled and backed away. Hon glanced back and her four friends were exiting the crowd to stand beside her, each with a weapon of their own. Hon whistled and a large husky, its' shoulders even with the two monsters’, bounded around the corner of the alley, a friend the readers had made during the first week of their deliverance. It barked and Hon climbed on, using her small amount of magic to light up the blade of her scalpel once she was mounted. Ad and Comp called out, “Where are you going?!”

Hon replied, “To defend my friends!”

The referenced friends then all retorted with cries of how they wouldn’t leave Hon a second time and she shouted back about them needing to get the other readers out of danger. They hesitantly agreed and ran off, guiding the readers like lost sheep as Hon turned her attention to the rapidly approaching monsters. Hon recognized one instantly from when she fought Gaster, however briefly, and he also had a glimmer of recognition in his eye socket. The other, with a crack extending from each eye socket, she had only seen occasionally in the Grillby’s. Both were skeletons. Hon's position on the husky brought her to eye level with them as the husky stepped forwards slightly, protective of the readers funneling themselves down the alley behind it. In a raspy croak that echoed in the narrow alley Hon said, “Leave. Us. Alone.”

Both monsters’ left eye sockets sparked at the malice in her voice, however small it was. Inwardly Hon was pleased with their reactions. Hon brought up her scalpel and the husky started pacing forwards to meet the skeletons a bit aways from the escaping readers. They both took defensive positions and Hon said in reply, “If you have no intent of harming or capturing us there is no need. However, I doubt you don’t have at least one of them.”

Sure enough, the one with cracks by his eye sockets was eyeing the readers before he looked up, sensing Hon's eyes on him. She spoke again while neither skeleton said a word. “Let’s just get to the point. Stay away from us and you don’t get bit, scratched, hurt, etcetera-”

Hon was cut off as all four of her friends ran out from farther down the alley. She hissed, “Go back!”

Tim, overcome with his protectiveness, shouted back, “No way in the Underground are we doing that after last time!”

Hon gritted her teeth.

And so, without a word, she grabbed as many styrofoam containers as she could and piled them onto the dog’s back while her friends scaled the fur to join me on its neck. They then sped after the readers, leaving the monsters in the dust as they both spat curses and raced after them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't ask me idk what's going on either


	4. Super Spooky Skeletons: Bittyshop Arc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuff.

Hon and her group of thirty had trekked across the city to the Reader shelter, planning on dropping off three newbies who wanted to be adopted, as they had done twice before. Plus, they could ask Mrs. Hart if there was to be bad weather. Ki and Ad squeezed under the back door to scout and after a few minutes came out laughing so hard they were bent over, their arms on their sides. “You’ve gotta see this!”

Ki chortled as he walked past her. Hon nodded slowly, somewhat puzzled, and squeezed under the door before walking around and looking through a glass pane to the owner’s room. Soon enough she was laughing croakily at the sight of five or more different skeletons, all of which had been shrunk down to Reader size, sprawled all over the bedroom napping. One in a orange hoodie languidly raised his skull to look at the window and raised an eyebrow at the wildly giggling Reader, which only caused her to laugh harder. Hon wiped a tear from her eye and hopped down from the glass, squeezing back under the back door to say, “Guys, come on in, you..”

She broke down into another cascade of giggles and ran back under the door to knock on the glass saying in a hoarse voice, “Miss?”

The deer monster blinked awake and looked at the small dark figure on the window leading to the shop. “Yes?”

She asked as her gaze focused and sharpened. The little figure said raspily, “We’ve got three newly formed readers who want to stay here, you got room?”

The monster blinked as she finally recognized the reader and rose, the skeletons sleeping on her giving a squeak of irritation as they were awakened. “There’s always room here, you know that!”

The monster gently teased.  Hon giggled apologetically and shrugged, getting down from the sill and squeezing under the door to the room. Hon recognized one of skeletons and said in a surprised tone, “Holy guacamole, you’re the guy from the labs!”

Said skeleton looked up, his choice fedora tilting as he spoke, “And your the reader that carved a new crack in Gaster’s eye.”

The reader smiled and replied, “Touche, detective.”

“How do you know each other? It can’t be from here, since I’ve been here a lot and never seen her…”

One of the skeletons interjected with a finger raised, eyebrows raised higher as he looked between them. “Past experiences.”

The skeleton in the fedora retorted with a snort that implied there was more to the story, his eyes on Hon. “Now how did you know I’m a detective?”

The honesty reader simply smiled mysteriously and replied, “Readers hear a lot more than monsters think, though thank you for confirming the rumors.”

Right at that moment the rest of her group walked in, their disheveled forms clear in the artificial light that was turned on a few minutes earlier. “Now, down to business, Mrs. Hart, can you introduce these three to their fellow readers in the tank, we have some catching up to do.”

Hon added the last part with a pointed look towards the skeletons, whom nodded as they caught her meaning, and she gestured over her shoulder for the three readers to come forward, Mrs.Hart kneeling down to scoop them up, her furry and experienced hands making sure none of them fell. “Sure, I’ll get them settled in.”


	5. Hehehe:Bitty Shop Arc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More Stuff. Not all skeles got affected by the thing that turned em small.

As the group of disheveled readers came in and spotted the assorted shrunken skeletons, half of them looked like they were about to burst out laughing and the other half seemed to be shocked into silence. From the back an alarmed squeak was heard and a little reader darted from the crowd and hid behind Hon, peeking out at the skeletons from the shelter of the Honest’s legs. When the skeletons saw the younger reader, they all looked more than a little queasy. The reader had a burn scar all along the right side of her face, her eye socket the only thing left of the organ that once was. Hon picked up the little reader, whom snuggled her right side into Hon’s shirt so it was less visible. Hon said sadly, “Y’know, not all readers are rescued from bad homes before it is too late…”  
The skeletons, except for a few, looked rather shocked. Hon shook out of her somber demeanor and set down the little reader in a small bundle of cloth. They snuggled deeply into it while Hon straightened and asked, “So who’s taking care of your readers?”  
The skeletons looked surprised, as if they hadn’t even thought of it. Justy continued, “I know at least three of you have one, who’s taking care of them while you guys are like this?”  
One she recognized as Alpha Sans spoke, “How do you know we have readers?”  
Hon retorted, “You and Pip come to Grillby’s a lot, I’ve never talked to you but me and Pip have talked on occasion.”  
“Meanwhile I know about the rest of you because of the news of a Timid turning into a Kind, a rare occurrence, and talk of a reader with similar scarring to mine.”  
She stroked the thick scar on her neck absentmindedly, the skeletons’ focus lighting on it.  
“By the way, Mrs. Hart,”  
She said, addressing the eavesdropping deer monster in the doorway, “Are there going to be any extreme weather events that I’ll need to worry about?”  
Mrs. Hart replied, “A windstorm and a flash flood, in fact I was planning on coming down and warning you.”  
Hon’s expression soured slightly and she asked, “As much as I dislike the idea, can we stay in the cage we stayed in last flood? I don’t like it when monsters come in and gawk, but it’s better than being washed away.”  
Mrs. Hart nodded thoughtfully. “As long as you don’t mind being out on the display, since that’s the only place with room for it, I can do that.”  
“Deal.”  
Hon said, holding out a hand that Mrs. Hart shook with a furred finger.


	6. Holy Shit Asriel: Bitty Shop Arc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hon meets Asriel.

Hon was pacing. She had sent out a reader to alert someone she trusted to spread the word that a flood and windstorm was on the way and the reader, when they returned, had brought both troubling, surprising, and hopeful news. She was, apparently, now known among readers as the ‘Protector’. There had also been rumors of a reader village on the mountain, one that would accept anyone. Meanwhile, more of the escaped readers that lived in the city were disappearing, gone but for few and far between survivors. Each described what they saw differently but one thing was clear. It was the work of a mastermind, and one she knew well. Gaster. He wasn’t trying to hide it, at least not from the readers. Lost in thought as she contemplated the situation she didn’t notice the rest of her group huddling to the back of the cage or the ring of a bell signaling the shop’s door opening. She didn’t notice the shadow or the feeling of a gaze burning into her back. She was finally snapped out of her thoughts when a small voice asked, “What happened to you?”

Now, she and her group had been moved to a cage across from the larger play area, their scars on display openly for monsters to see. When Hon looked up she met the greenish-gold eyes of a small bipedal goat. It was obviously from Alpha Clan, its gaze bright. As she looked closer she noticed its paws resting on the counter and a small human child was behind it. Hon squeaked in surprise as she recognized the child. It was the Alpha clan’s Frisk. And that made the goat child Asriel, the Prince of monster kind in Alpha clan. Hurriedly Justy bowed her head in respect before straightening her neck and answering Asriel’s question. “We were…changed. So that we could be sold for more,”

Her voice cracked on the last word and she swallowed. “I was punished for saying some things I shouldn’t have.”

The child looked stricken and Justy hurriedly added, “But we got away, and now we live on our own in the city. We’re just waiting out the storm in here.”

Asriel held up a paw to undo the latch and paused. “May I?”

Hon nodded as the rest of her group backed away from the opening and Asriel unlatched it. Carefully, she noticed, he reached in and touched her, a charmed expression on his face. “I’ve never gotten to touch a reader before.”

He gave as an explanation for his wonderfilled demeanor. Suddenly a voice came from the desk, “Children, It’s time to go!”

Asriel reluctantly withdrew his paw and replied, “We’ll be there in a minute!”

He relocked the latch and said, “Will I see you again?”

Hon replied, “Maybe..”

The two children walked away, and Hon felt the tension she didn’t know had been there rush out of her body. Ad walked up and placed his hand consolingly on her shoulder. “We all miss them..”

This, of course, was referring to the small amount of readers whom monsters had passed away. Hon and the other readers piled themselves into one of the corners at the back of the cage, with Hon rising to address at least two monsters that had asked them questions. Finally night fell and Hon sat down to watch over her friends as they slept. The door’s now-familiar bell rang out as it opened and in came a skeleton who barely glanced at the cage and the reader with bags under her eyes asleep sitting up.


	7. Jumpscare Bitch: Bitty Shop Arc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skeles have been cured by now, been abt 2-3 days.

Hon’s head dipped and then thunked against the glass, causing her to jolt awake. She kicked at the floor and scooted herself away in a wild panic before she looked around and saw that she was safe, everyone was safe. Still groggy, she pulled out something from her pocket and buried her nose into it. A scrap of fur was clutched in her hands, reeking with the scent of her deceased monster.

Hon had been a Kind then, and always accompanied her rabbit monster Carol no matter where she went. Then her monster had died protecting her, with Hon turning into a Honest on sight of her body, having been to kind to become a full Justice, and had barely a second to clutch her fuzzy fur before she was pulled away with a handful of fur stuck to her as Carol turned to dust. Quickly, before they could take any of the precious strands, she had snatched them from her clothes and into a loose ball, which she had stuffed into her pocket seconds before she had been taken away.

She sucked in another breath, the scent she had always associated with home flooding her, filling her with a sense of safety. Justy lowered it from her face and put it back in her pocket, looking fondly towards her readers. They were her everything now, and she knew it was going to be even harder to survive than it had been before in the coming storm, but she had to try. Justy was the Protector now. Her resolve restored, she looked out at the dimly lit store and almost immediately spotted two sockets staring. Right. At. Her.


	8. Underfell Snas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wariness.

Hon’s legs kicked her backwards and away while she scrambled for her scalpel. It lit with a flash of purple, and she swung it to be in front of her, illuminating the skeleton monster. It had a crack on its skull, red eyes, a red jacket with fluffy ends, and it was looking at Hpn, its eyelights almost crossed. What concerned her the most was the fact it was currently staring at her, its eyes lighting on the scar on her neck, and it being MUCH too close to her readers. Hon scanned its face for intent, but it was blanker than a stone slate. Hon noticed there was a twitch of movement in the fabric of the hood, and a reader poked their head out of the fluffy hood. Hon quietly snarled, lifting her lip like a dog. “If you are looking for information about your reader, I suggest going to the desk and alerting the owner.”  
The skeleton continued looking at her and said, “nah, I didn’t come here for information about my reader. they wanted to meet this ‘Protector’ they had heard about.”  
He eyed the scalpel, its magic crackling as it reacted to her agitation.  
“i don’t blame ‘em, with that sort of a weapon you gotta gain a pretty good reputation.”  
As the skeleton talked, Hon edged her way around to put herself between the skeleton and the pile of sleeping readers in the corner. The reader went a little bit more out of the hood, looking at her closely and admiringly and Hon tilted her head at them slightly in a questioning way. Hon’s eyes flashed up to the latch as soon as she saw his phalanges reach for it, her scalpel raised threateningly. Some of the crackling magic flicked onto them like static, and she watched as he retracted his hand, his eyes wary but impatient. “I can do this all night.”  
He pointed out impatiently. Justy still kept her guard up, and said protectively, “So can I, and if I can help it your fingers, phalanges, whatever they are, are not coming an inch into this tank.”  
The skeleton frowned, and for a while they had a staring match. Then, his eyes started to droop. Over the course of the next hour, they drooped more and more, until they shut and he slumped. Hon’s posture relaxed a bit, but she kept her blade close, watching him, not trusting him even for a second. And so the hours went, him stirring every once in awhile, her tensing every so often, and the lone reader watching her every movement.


	9. Fuck Forgot About That: Bitty Shop Arc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Desire times hit.

Hon woke up with about ten readers wrapped around her waist, murmuring incoherently as she fought to her feet and dragged herself and the ten readers to a nearby clump of five, all in a pile and also talking in whispers. As she reached to pull off a smaller one they clamped on her wrist and pulled themselves out, wrapping their arms around her waist slightly above the others. _Greeeeeat… they’ve hit their desire times._  Hon thought to herself as she determinedly unclasped another reader from the pile, which chose to wrap their arms around one of the readers who encircled her lower half like a living skirt. “heh, need some help?”

Hon turned around, not at all surprised to see the skeleton behind her, fixing him with a tired stare. “Shove off.”

Hon turned back to her task, trying to sort out the readers while toting her growing entourage behind her. All of them slowly joined her posse until the mass had expanded from a skirt into a gown. “Stars.”

Hon breathed out as she sat down, dragging the readers with her so they were concentrated into a single bunch and not scattered. Hon tried to shed the readers so she could ask for food from a dignified standpoint, but had to resign to a grumpy one as the ones whom their desire had included her (basically a lot of them) dragged her back down. Hon begrudgingly rubbed one’s hair, and under the grudging exterior was both touched and not thrilled at the new information that she was, in their desire’s logic, the object of their infatuation.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeeeeeah this I've had for a while. Just transferring it.


End file.
